Don’t….Close…Your…Eyes……….the Longest Night of the Year.

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meteors
The Perseid Meteor Shower, taken in August 2016 by my friend and photographer extraordinaire Adrian Shellard (check him out!); I had a wonderful photo of a full moon taken in Ghana by a friend, but I cannot find it (the moon was not full on December 11, 2017; in fact it was only a fingernail sliver in the sky on my longest night of the year).  And meteors are cool.

OK, we all know that sometime around December 21 is what is considered, in the Northern Hemisphere (I almost forgot there are people reading this on the bottom of the world, and for them it’s the other way around), the longest night of the year.

Or maybe it’s the shortest day—it’s a glass-half-empty kind of thing, but in this case my story is about the night, so we’ll go with that.

When was the last time you stayed up all night?

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Tomorrow doesn’t have to be un-bear-able…..just sayin’

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P1010209 (2)
I snapped these two at a nature preserve in Alaska about a lifetime ago (ok, about ten years or so); they were actually playing, and they were actually on the other side of a fence…..

Tomorrow is the saddest day of the year.

It’s a fact: the third Monday in January is considered the most depressing day of the year, and that’s backed by professionals–I didn’t make it up.

I hate to be the bearer of crappy, discouraging news—but you’d almost have to be a hermit to not have heard this before.

And there are a few reasons for this.

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What a difference a year can make.

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How many times have I said that in the last 365 days?

Tonight, New Year’s Eve 2017, I’m in Tempe, Arizona. It’s a warm night and I’ve just come in from an evening out.

I’m at my brother’s condo; my niece and her boyfriend are off in Flagstaff snowboarding.  They took their pooch, Bella, so it’s just me in the empty space, which is nice.

It’s just after midnight in the Mountain Time Zone, and fireworks are exploding all around; in fact, it sounds as though there is a big show somewhere nearby (I can hear the geese in the nearby lake freaking out).  I’ve cracked the mini bottle of Moet to which I treated myself (I only had a couple of sips of warm champagne at the symphony, so I’m ready to toast 2018).  But I really need to finish writing before I polish off the bottle, for sure.

 

champ loop

Drinking and driving laws are pretty strict here in Arizona—as they should be, so I’ve had a dry New Year’s Eve day and night up till now, save for the one small sip hours ago.

And while it’s been dry, it’s been anything but dull.

Continue reading “What a difference a year can make.” →